John 19:1-16
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe.3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
Today is the day traditionally known as “Maundy Thursday.” The word “Maundy” comes from John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” The Latin translation of the first words of that verse are “Mandatum novum…” (“A new commandment…”)
It is an ancient day of remembrance. It is at least as old as the year 393 AD when it is mentioned by the Council of Hippo.[1] It is almost certainly older than even that. Of course, Maundy Thursday is rooted in the New Testament, in the upper room in which Jesus calls upon His disciples to take bread and wine as the signs of His broken body and shed blood and to do these things “in remembrance” of the Lord Jesus.
Tonight we come together and remember. We come to remember Jesus. We come to remember His work on the cross. We come to remember His pain and His sacrifice.
Our text this evening involves the moments immediately preceding the cross. Jesus has been delivered into the hands of the state by the angry mob. They are demanding His death by crucifixion. The Roman governor, Pilate, is attempting to pull off the impossible feat of (1) placating the bloodthirsty mob, (2) maintaining order in the region, (3) not dropping the ball before his superiors in Rome and (4) trying to get Jesus off of his hands without being guilty of the execution of Jesus.
The result is that Pilate serves Jesus up to the demands of the murderous crowd. He makes some final but feeble last attempts to remove guilt from his own hands, but, despite his best efforts, he plays his part in the crucifixion of Jesus.
I would like to call us this evening to consider this passage and to remember. As we prepare for the Lord’s Supper, let us come together and remember many things.
I. As we come to the table, let us remember the physical pain that Jesus underwent. (v.1-3)
Pilate has Jesus scourged and physically humiliated by the soldiers.
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.
Jesus is whipped.
Jesus’ brow is punctured by the cruel thorns of a mocking crown.
Jesus’ bloodied back is draped in a taunting purple robe.
Jesus is verbally mocked: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
Jesus is pummeled by the fists of the surrounding soldiers.
Let us remember the physical pain of Jesus.
The elements on this table hurt. It hurt for the body to be broken. It hurt for the blood to be spilt.
The pain preceded the cross. The physical ordeal on the way to the cross was so daunting that the ancient Roman Seneca argued that it would be better for a man to commit suicide than to undergo the hellishly prolonged agony of the scourging and then the cross. Seneca wrote:
Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly weals on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long-drawn-out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross.[2]
Seneca asks if anyone would willingly take the prolonged physical ordeal of the cross as opposed to the immediate death offered by suicide. We answer, “Yes, Seneca. There was one who willingly took the prolonged pain. There was one who did not take the quick way out. His name was Jesus and He took the pain.
Tonight, as you come, remember the pain.
II. As we come to the table, let us remember that Jesus was rejected by His own people. (v.4-6)
The Lord Jesus was not kidnapped by outsiders. Rather, He was rejected by His own people.
4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”
Pilate presents the beaten and bloodied Christ to the crowd. But it is not just any crowd. It is a crowd of His own people, the people to whom He was sent. And they cry, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”
History tells us that when Julius Caesar was assassinated by Senate, he was shocked to find his friend Brutus among the crowd. “Et tu, Brute?!” he said. “And you, Brutus?”
It is a shocking thing to be killed by your own people. Jesus’ death was instigated by a crowd of His own people.
Hear that, church, and be warned: sometimes those closest to the truth not only have the hardest time seeing the truth but also are some of the first ones to come to hate the truth.
As you come, remember that Jesus was rejected and handed over by His own people.
And remember that many of us claim to be His people.
III. As we come to the table, let us remember that Jesus was killed for who He was. (v.7)
Remember, too, that it was not merely something that Jesus did that raised the ire of the crowd. It was who He was.
7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.”
They pin their hopes for the death of Jesus primarily on the threat of His person. It was who He claimed to be that was the great offense. Of course, what He did was also offensive to the Jews, but what He did simply flowed out of who He is.
They not only hated Jesus’ works, they hated Jesus Himself.
All rejection of Christ is a rejection of who He really is. The world hates the notion that God would step into creation and that He would step into creation in this way, the person of a humble Jew.
Christ Jesus was an offense to the Jews.
Christ Jesus is an offense to the world today.
Perhaps you are offended by Him as well: by His claim of divinity, by His teachings on the Kingdom, by the doorway of the cross, by His call for us to take the cross too, by His dignity and strength, His humility and resolve, His courage and His truth.
This table answers the question, “What is God like?” God is like this: Jesus suffering so that a people may be purchased, Jesus taking the blows so that humanity might be saved, Jesus being pummeled by the mob so that we might be set free.
Does this offend you, the person of Jesus? This is who He is.
IV. As we come to the table, let us remember that Jesus accepted the cross. (v.8-11)
Note, too, the silent resolve of Jesus. Pilate, shocked by this claim of deity, suddenly begins to understand that this is no mere, local, political squabble. Apparently this man has claimed not to be “a king” but “The King”! Pilate comes to him in frightened panic:
8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Jesus does not bargain.
Jesus does not beg.
Jesus does not avoid.
Jesus does not deny.
In silence, He accepts the full and devastating implications of His deity. This Pilate cannot understand where Jesus is from, but Jesus knows. He knows where He is from and He knows He is hated for it. He knows He is suffering for it. He knows he will suffer for it even more.
He knows…and He accepts it.
Silently.
With quiet dignity.
Jesus accepts the will of God, even to the point of the cross.
As you come, consider the silent strength of Jesus Christ.
How loud are you when obeying God will cost you something? Do you accept the will of God, even when His will is painful?
Consider the silent acceptance of Jesus.
V. As we come to the table, let us remember that Jesus was crucified on the altar of political capital. (v.12-14)
Pilate is befuddled, but Pilate needs a way out. The crowd knows what kind of man he is, and they appeal to his base sense of political capital.
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”
Ah! How very crafty the crowd is!
“Pilate,” they say, “this man makes Himself out to be more than Caesar himself. How can you aid a man who thinks He is greater than Caesar? Is it not seditious, treasonous to assist a rival power? If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.”
Pilate was a man of the world. He knew the rules. You do not bite the hand that feeds you. You do not anger Caesar. So Pilate is now reduced to a criminal act of cowardice: He presents Jesus to the Jews and says what he knows will whip them into a foam of fury: “Behold your King!”
Pilate has now made his decision. He has no personal beef with Jesus. Perhaps he even finds him mysterious and intriguing. But is he willing to lose what little political capital he has to defend this odd man? Indeed, he is not.
May we remember as we come that Jesus was sacrificed on the altar of political capital. May we behold the rank and shameful reasons why Jesus was killed by cowardly men.
VI. As we come to the table, let us remember that Jesus presents us all with only two choices. (v.15-16)
Pilate says, “Behold your King!” The reaction is utterly predictable.
15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
At last, the clear reality of the situation emerges from the dense fog crowd manipulation, political expediency, tight-rope walking and legal maneuvering. At the end of the day, it is a simple choice: Jesus or Caesar. Who will be King?
Jesus or Caesar? God or mammon? The Kingdom of God or the kingdoms of the world? Obedience or power? The will of God or the will of man? The cross or the palace? Calvary or Rome?
In all of human history, there are always and only two choices. You will either stand with Jesus and His cross or you will stand with Caesar and throne. The one lasts forever. The other is in a constant state of corruption. The one seems unpopular but in it there is life. The other seems to make purpose sense, but the way of Caesar is death.
As you come tonight, consider the stark choice with which we are presented tonight.
Jesus or Caesar.
God or the world.
The cross or comfort.
Life or death.
If you have chosen life in Christ, you are invited to come to the table.
If you have chosen life with Caesar, I plead with you to repent and be saved right now, this very moment! Then, you too may come and eat and drink and remember what your Savior has done for you.